Rivers Rerun: Governor Wike Deploys 300 Drones, Vows To Prevent Rigging
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers state has deployed 300 drones ahead of the tomorrow’s rerun elections in the state according to sources close to the Rivers state government.
The drones which are super tech UAVs designed to fly at 13000ft above sea level with special HD super 4k cameras designed to spot minute objects and detect motions from a long distance, are a part of the governor’s strategies to ensure that the elections are monitored to avoid rigging and other forms of electoral malpractices .
The drones which are remotely manned from a central control station located somewhere in the state capital will return live video streams to the control stations at real time.
There have been alot of accusations and counter accusations between the ruling PDP government of the state and the Federal government controlled APC of the possibility of plans to rig the elections.
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The PDP accused the APC of planning to rig the elections after Police in Rivers arrested nine syndicates last month involved in the printing of fake result sheets purportedly to be used in the rescheduled rerun elections in the state.
The fake printing press with the name, Help-Mate Consult, had several election result sheets with some being original copies from INEC.
However, when interrogated, the owner and director of the press said an Honourable of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state, Hon. Emma Chinda gave him the assignment with a pretax that the original INEC copies were for guidance and that the results would be used at the tribunal.
Governor Wike and his predecessor, now minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi have been involved in a renewed war of words with both accusing each other of sponsoring violence in previous elections.
Following court rulings that invalidated the 2015 National Assembly and State Assembly elections in Rivers State, the Independent National Electoral Commission had conducted rerun polls in the State. But the elections was marred by violence, causing suspension of the exercise – now to be held on December 10. governor Wike, who has repeatedly said that APC is not popular in Rivers state, has insisted on having free and fair elections.
With fears that the APC which is in control of the security forces loyal to the federal government may want to win by all cost, the governor has turned to technology to prevent any possible attempts to rig the elections. The almighty question is: can drones stop a possible connivance between federal forces and the APC?
